I gambled and I lost. I failed in securing my options for this choice for myself, but I succeeded in verifying the Dark Age is still with us.
Quoted in "Between the dying and the dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's life and the battle to Legalize Euthanasia" - Page 247 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - 2006
All the big powers...they've silenced me. So much for free speech and choice on this fundamental human right.
Quoted in "Between the dying and the dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's life and the battle to Legalize Euthanasia" - Page 247 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - 2006
It's the boredom that kills you. You read until you're tired of that. You do crossword puzzles until you're tired of that. This is torture. This is mental torture.
Quoted in "Between the dying and the dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's life and the battle to Legalize Euthanasia" - Page 247 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - 2006
The American people are sheep. They're comfortable, rich, working. It's like the Romans, they're happy with bread and their spectator sports. The Super Bowl means more to them than any right.
Quoted in "Between the dying and the dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's life and the battle to Legalize Euthanasia" - Page 247 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - 2006
There is nothing anyone can do anyway. The public has no power. The government knows I'm not a criminal. The parole board knows I'm not a criminal. The judge knows I'm not a criminal.
Quoted in "Between the dying and the dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's life and the battle to Legalize Euthanasia" - Page 247 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - 2006
When history looks back, it will prove what I'll die knowing.
Quoted in "Between the dying and the dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's life and the battle to Legalize Euthanasia" - Page 247 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - 2006
This could never be a crime in any society which deems itself enlightened.
Quoted in "Between the dying and the dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's life and the battle to Legalize Euthanasia" - Page 16 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - 2006
We need some honesty and sincerity instead of corrupt government in Washington.
Quoted in FoxNews article entitled "Kevorkian Plans Congressional Run" - [March 13, 2008]
Am I a criminal? The world knows I'm not a criminal. What are they trying to put me in jail for? You've lost common sense in this society because of religious fanaticism and dogma.
Quoted in "Jail: An Inmates Survival Guide" - Page 24 - by Panama Publishing, Inc. - 2007
As a medical doctor, it is my duty to evaluate the situation with as much data as I can gather and as much expertise as I have and as much experience as I have to determine whether or not the wish of the patient is medically justified.
Quoted in "Years of Minutes" - by Andy Rooney - 2004
Jack Kevorkian is a former pathologist. He is most noted for publicly championing a
terminal patient'sTerminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe an active and malignant disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer...
right to dieThe term "right to die" refers to various issues related to the decision of whether an individual who could continue to live with the aid of life support, or in a diminished or enfeebled capacity, should be allowed to die...
via
physician-assisted suicide; he claims to have assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He famously said that "dying is not a crime."
Between 1999 and 2007, Kevorkian served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence for second-degree murder. He was released on June 1, 2007, on parole due to good behavior.
Life and career
Kevorkian was born in
Pontiac, MichiganPontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 66,337. It is the county seat of Oakland County...
, to
Armenian-AmericanAn Armenian American is an American who is of Armenian descent. There is an estimate of up to 1,500,000 Armenian-Americans in the United States. Other estimates, also in the United States, are different. During the United States 2000 Census, 385,488 Americans indicated either full or partial...
parents. He graduated from
Pontiac Central High SchoolPontiac Central High School was one of two public high schools in Pontiac, Michigan, United States. It had been an accredited high school from 1849 until its closing in 2009...
with honors in 1945, at the age of 17. He then enrolled at the
University of Michigan Medical SchoolThe University of Michigan Health System is the wholly-owned academic medical center of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It includes the U-M Medical School, with its Faculty Group Practice and many research laboratories; the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, which includes University...
, from which he graduated in 1952.
In the 1980s, Kevorkian wrote a series of articles for the German journal
Medicine and Law that laid out his thinking on the ethics of
euthanasiaEuthanasia refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner. Many different forms of euthanasia can be distinguished, including animal euthanasia and human euthanasia, and within the latter, voluntary and involuntary euthanasia...
.
Kevorkian started advertising in
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
newspapers in 1987 as a physician consultant for "death counseling." In 1991 the State of Michigan revoked Jack Kevorkian's
medical licenseIn most countries, only persons with a medical license bestowed either by a specified government-approved professional association or a government agency are authorized to practice medicine. Licenses are not granted automatically to all people with medical degrees...
and made it clear that given his actions, he was no longer permitted to practice medicine or to work with patients. Between 1990 and 1998, Kevorkian assisted in the deaths of nearly one hundred terminally ill people, according to his lawyer
Geoffrey Fieger-Biography and Legal Practice:Geoffrey Fieger is an American attorney based in Southfield, Michigan. He is the senior partner in Fieger Law and occasional legal commentator for NBC and MSNBC. His practice focuses on criminal defense, litigation and medical malpractice cases.Fieger grew up in the...
. In each of the above mentioned cases, the individuals themselves allegedly took the final action which resulted in their own deaths. Kevorkian allegedly assisted only by attaching the individual to a
euthanasia deviceA euthanasia device is a machine engineered to allow an individual to die quickly with minimal pain. The most common devices are those designed to help terminally ill people die by euthanasia without prolonged pain. They may be operated by a second party, such as a physician, or by the person...
that he had made. The individual then pushed a button which released the drugs or chemicals that would end his or her own life. Two deaths were assisted by means of a device which delivered the euthanizing drugs mechanically through an
IVIntravenous therapy or IV therapy is the giving of liquid substances directly into a vein. It can be intermittent or continuous; continuous administration is called an intravenous drip. The word intravenous simply means "within a vein", but is most commonly used to refer to IV therapy...
. Kevorkian called it a "Thanatron" (death machine). Other people were assisted by a device which employed a
gasThis page is about the physical properties of gas as a state of matter. For the uses of gases, and other meanings, see Gas .A gas is one of four states of matter. Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid...
mask fed by a canister of
carbon monoxideCarbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas, yet very toxic to humans. It consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom, connected by a covalent double bond and a dative covalent bond...
which was called "Mercitron" (mercy machine). This became necessary because Kevorkian's medical license had been revoked after the first two deaths, and he could no longer have legal access to the substances required for the "Thanatron".
Art career
Kevorkian is a jazz musician and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
.
The Kevorkian Suite: A Very Still LifeA Very Still Life is a jazz album by Jack Kevorkian, in which he plays the flute.- Track listing :# Whispering, Came Violets# Summertooth# Brotherhood Of# Very Still Life# August to Amber# Fuguetta Caffeine# Interlude: Unfinished Minuet...
was a 1997 limited release CD of 5000 copies from the 'Lucid Subjazz' label. It features Kevorkian on the flute and organ playing his own works with "The Morpheus Quintet". In the liner notes for the CD is a message from Kevorkian where he cites
Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
as his greatest musical hero. He also writes he is a big fan of musicians such as
Benny GoodmanBenjamin David Goodman was an American jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman"....
and
Artie ShawArthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader...
. On the cover of the album is a painting from Kevorkian entitled "A Very Still Life".
Kevorkian is an oil painter. His work tends toward the grotesque; he sometimes paints with his own blood, and has created pictures such as one "of a child eating the flesh off a decomposing corpse”. Of his known works, 6 were made available in the 1990s for print release. The Ariana Gallery in
Royal Oak, MichiganRoyal Oak is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a suburb of Detroit. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 60,062. It should not be confused with Royal Oak Charter Township, a separate community located nearby. It is the 5th largest city in Oakland...
is the exclusive distributor of Jack Kevorkian's artwork. The original oil prints are not for release.
One of his paintings, entitled "For He Is Raised" was used as the cover for sludge metal band
Acid BathAcid Bath was a seminal American sludge metal band from Houma, Louisiana that was active from 1991 to 1997. Acid Bath combined sludge metal with influences from doom metal, death metal and blues-rock...
's second and final album
Paegan Terrorism TacticsPaegan Terrorism Tactics is the title of the second album by Louisiana band Acid Bath. It was to be their last album before their disbanding in 1997 due to the death of their bassist Audie Pitre.The album's cover is a painting by Dr...
released in 1996.
Trials
Kevorkian was tried numerous times over the years for assisting in suicides. Many of these trials took place in Oakland County, Michigan. In every instance prior to the Thomas Youk case (see below), Kevorkian was beginning to gain some public support for his cause, as is evidenced by the defeat of Oakland County prosecutor Richard Thompson by David Gorcyca in the Republican primary. The result of the political election was attributed, in part, to the declining public support for the prosecution of Kevorkian and its associated legal expenses.
Kevorkian also demonstrated a flair for dramatic publicity stunts at this time, showing up at one trial in a powdered wig. He protested an incarceration pursuant to another trial by staging a hunger strike and wore a placard challenging the Oakland County prosecutor to bring him to trial for the death of Youk.
Conviction and imprisonment
On the November 22, 1998, broadcast of
60 Minutes60 Minutes is an American investigative television newsmagazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by long time producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation. It has been among the top-rated TV programs for much of its life,...
, Kevorkian allowed the airing of a videotape he had made on September 17, 1998, which depicted the voluntary euthanasia of Thomas Youk, 52, an adult male with full decisional capacity who was in the final stages of
ALSAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a form of motor neuron disease. ALS, sometimes called Maladie de Charcot, is a progressive, fatal, neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement...
. After Youk provided his fully-informed consent (a sometimes complex legal determination made here by editorial consensus) on September 17, 1998, Kevorkian himself administered a lethal injection. This was novel, as all of his earlier clients had reportedly completed the process themselves. During the videotape, Kevorkian dared the authorities to try to convict him or stop him from carrying out assisted suicides. This incited the prosecuting attorney to bring murder charges against Kevorkian, claiming he had single-handedly caused the death.
On March 26, 1999, Kevorkian was charged with first-degree
homicideHomicide refers to the act of a human killing a human being. A common form of homicide, for example, would be murder. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
and the delivery of a
controlled substanceA controlled substance is generally a drug or chemical whose manufacture, possession, and use are regulated by a government. This may include illegal drugs and prescription medications ....
(administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk).
Kevorkian's license to practice medicine had been revoked eight years previously; thus he was not legally allowed to possess the controlled substance. As homicide law is relatively fixed and routine, this trial was markedly different from earlier ones that involved an area of law in flux (assisted suicide). Kevorkian, however, discharged his attorneys and proceeded through the trial
pro se (representing himself). The judge ordered a criminal defense attorney to remain available at trial for information and advice. Inexperienced in law and persisting in his efforts to appear pro se, Kevorkian encountered great difficulty in presenting his evidence and arguments.
The Michigan jury found Kevorkian guilty of second-degree homicide. It was proven that he had directly killed a person because Thomas Youk was not physically able to kill himself. Youk, unable to assist in his suicide, agreed with Kevorkian under voluntary euthanasia: the consent to kill him using controlled substances. The judge sentenced Kevorkian to serve a 10-25 year prison sentence and told him: "You were on bond to another judge when you committed this offense, you were not licensed to practice medicine when you committed this offense and you hadn't been licensed for eight years. And you had the audacity to go on national television, show the world what you did and dare the legal system to stop you. Well, sir, consider yourself stopped." Kevorkian was sent to
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
in
Coldwater, MichiganColdwater is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 12,697. It is the county seat of Branch County.The city is located at the center of Coldwater Township, though it is politically independent....
.
In the course of the various proceedings, Kevorkian made statements under oath and to the press that he considered it his duty to assist persons in their death. He also indicated under oath that because he thought laws to the contrary were archaic and unjust, he would persist in civil disobedience, even under threat of criminal punishment. Future intent to commit crimes is an element parole boards may consider in deciding whether to grant a convicted person relief. After his conviction (and subsequent losses on appeal) Kevorkian was denied parole repeatedly.
In an
MSNBCMSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States and available in both the US and Canada. Its name is a combination of "MSN" and "NBC"....
interview aired on September 29, 2005, Kevorkian said that if he were granted parole, he would not resume directly helping people die and would restrict himself to campaigning to have the law changed. On December 22, 2005, Kevorkian was denied parole by a board on the count of 7-2 recommending not to give parole.
Terminally ill with
Hepatitis CHepatitis C is an infectious disease affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but once established, chronic infection can progress to scarring of the liver , and advanced scarring which is generally apparent after many years...
, which he contracted while doing research on
blood transfusionBlood transfusion is the process of transferring blood or blood-based products from one person into the circulatory system of another. Blood transfusions can be life-saving in some situations, such as massive blood loss due to trauma, or can be used to replace blood lost during surgery...
s in Vietnam, Kevorkian was expected to die within a year in May 2006. After applying for a pardon, parole, or commutation by the parole board and Governor
Jennifer GranholmJennifer Mulhern Granholm is a Canadian-born American politician, former Attorney General of Michigan, and the current Governor of the U.S. state of Michigan. A member of the Democratic Party, Granholm became Michigan's first female governor on January 1, 2003, when she succeeded Governor John...
, he was paroled on June 1, 2007, due to good behavior. He had only spent 8 years and 2 1/2 months behind bars rather than the predicted 10–25 years.
"Kevorkian will be on parole for two years, and one of the conditions he must meet is that he cannot help anyone else die. He is also prohibited from providing care for anyone who is older than 62 or is disabled. He could go back to prison if he violates his parole." Kevorkian said he would abstain from assisting any more terminal patients with death, and his role in the matter would strictly be to persuade states to change their laws on assisted suicide. He is also forbidden by the rules of his parole from commenting about assisted suicide.
On June 4, 2007, Kevorkian appeared on
CNNCable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is an U.S. cable news network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first network to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States...
's
Larry King LiveLarry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN. The show debuted in 1985, and is CNN's most watched program, with over one million viewers nightly.The show broadcasts from CNN's Los Angeles studios...
to discuss his time in prison and his future plans. At the time of Kevorkian's release, the only state in the United States that had legalized doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill people was
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
.
Activities after his release from prison
On January 15, 2008, Kevorkian gave his largest public lecture since his release from prison, speaking to a crowd of 4,867 people at the
University of FloridaThe University of Florida is a public land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant major research university located on a campus located in Gainesville, Florida, in the United States. The university traces its origins to 1853, and has continuously operated on its present Gainesville campus since the fall...
. The
St. Petersburg Times reported that Kevorkian expressed a desire for assisted suicide to be "a medical service" for willing patients. "My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death," the paper quoted him as saying. "My aim was to end suffering. It's got to be decriminalized."
On February 5, 2009, Kevorkian lectured to students and faculty at
Nova Southeastern UniversityNova Southeastern University, commonly referred to as NSU or Nova, is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian, research university located in Broward County, Florida, with its' main campus in the town of Davie...
in Davie, Florida. Over 2,500 people heard him discuss tyranny, the criminal justice system and politics. Many in the crowd left early because of poor acoustics and the fact that he did not lecture about assisted suicide. Those who stayed did get to hear his thoughts on the topic of euthanasia during a question and answer period. There were mixed reactions when Dr. Kevorkian unveiled an American Flag with a
swastikaThe swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form or its mirrored left-facing form. Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period and was first found in the Indus Valley Civilization of the Indian...
where the field of stars normally resides (the
UnionUnion generally means a union or combining of two individual things into one.* labor or trade union, an association of workers banded together in the interests of its members*"the Union", a reference to the European Union...
). He claimed the flag was intended to shock and remind everyone that this is where America is headed if changes are not made.
On September 2, 2009, he appeared on
Fox News ChannelThe Fox News Channel , commonly referred to as Fox or Fox News, is a major American cable news and satellite channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation. As of April 2009, it is available to 102 million households in the U.S...
's
Your World with Neil CavutoYour World with Neil Cavuto , which debuted as the Cavuto Business Report on the network's launch in 1996, is an American business television program appearing on Fox News Channel.-About the program:...
in his first live national television interview to discuss
health care reformThe debate over health care reform in the United States centers on questions about whether there is a fundamental right to health care, on who should have access to health care and under what circumstances, on the quality achieved for the high sums spent, and on the sustainability of expenditures...
.
On September 20, 2009, he appeared at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania to speak to a sold-out audience. Sellers of tickets, claimed that all tickets were sold out within 5 minutes of the office opening.
2008 Congressional election
On March 12, 2008, Kevorkian announced plans to run for
United States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
to represent
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
's 9th Congressional DistrictMichigan's 9th Congressional District is contained within Oakland County in the southeast areas of the state of Michigan and encompasses most of the county. It is the only congressional district to lie entirely within Oakland County....
against long term congressman
Joe KnollenbergJoseph "Joe" Knollenberg is a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. From 1993 to 2009, he was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing ....
(
RThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
-Bloomfield Hills) and
Central Michigan UniversityCentral Michigan University is a coeducational state university located in Mount Pleasant in the U.S. state of Michigan. Nearly 28,000 students are enrolled, of which approximately 20,000 are undergraduates, making the university the fourth largest in Michigan. CMU also has off-campus sites...
Professor
Gary PetersGary Peters is a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan, a Congressman in the state's 9th congressional district and a former political science professor at Central Michigan University. The district includes most of Oakland County, a wealthy suburban county northwest of Detroit...
(
DThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
-
Bloomfield TownshipBloomfield Township can refer to:* Bloomfield Township, LaGrange County, Indiana* Bloomfield Township, Huron County, Michigan* Bloomfield Township, Missaukee County, Michigan* Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan* Bloomfield Township, Minnesota...
). He ran as an independent, hoping to bring integrity and prison reform to the government. He received 9,047 votes, or 2.6%.
Further reading
- Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying by Derek Humphry
Derek Humphry is a British-born American journalist, author and principal founder in 1980 of the Hemlock Society USA and past president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, both of which support the notion of decriminalization of voluntary euthanasia...
. ISBN 0-385-33653-5.
- Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide (For and Against) by Gerald Dworkin
Gerald Dworkin is a Professor of moral, political and legal philosophy. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Davis. He has also taught at Harvard, MIT, and the University of Illinois, Chicago. He has been a visiting Fellow of All Souls College ,...
, R. G. Frey (Series Editor), Sissela BokSissela Bok, born 2 December 1934, is a Swedish-born philosopher and ethicist, the daughter of two Nobel Prize winners: Gunnar Myrdal who won the Economics prize with Friedrich Hayek in 1974, and Alva Myrdal who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982....
, 1998: ISBN 0-521-58789-1.
- Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Anatomy of a Constitutional Law Issue by Arthur Gordon Svenson and Susan M. Behuniak. ISBN 0-7425-1725-X.
- Assisted Suicide and the Right to Die: The Interface of Social Science, Public Policy, and Medical Ethics by Barry Rosenfeld PhD
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
, 2004 ISBN 1-59147-102-8.
- Forced Exit : The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder by Wesley J. Smith
Wesley J. Smith is a lawyer and an award winning author, a Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics at the Discovery Institute, associate director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture...
, 1997. ISBN 0-8129-2790-7.
- "A View to a Kill" by Wesley J. Smith, National Review Online, December 14, 2005, retrieved December 14, 2005.
- Appointment With Dr. Death by Michael Betzold
- "The Rhetoric of Kevorkian's Battle," by Robert Wade Kenny Quarterly Journal of Speech 86 (2000): 386-401.
External links